


Intoxicated by the Lie

by howlittleweare



Series: We Are the Last [TRC Zombie Au] [2]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: F/M, Zombie AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 00:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3749014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howlittleweare/pseuds/howlittleweare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A week after the horde attacked and divided their group, Gansey and Blue hold up in a fire lookout tower and try to figure out where to go from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intoxicated by the Lie

**Author's Note:**

> realizing that "In the Chill of your Stare I am Painfully Lost" is my most popular story, and just how much I enjoyed writing that, I decided to dive back into this universe. With the help of my good friend Lily_Blues, I shaped and developed an actual plot.
> 
> I figured I could use some practice writing the other characters, like Blue and Gansey.  
> Sorry if you wanted more pynch. maybe next time.
> 
> title taken from "Love Like War" by All Time Low

Blue rolled into reality with the soft blanket of dreams still heavy on her. The sky was glowing gray over the trees as the sun barely peeked over the horizon. Morning birds cawed quietly, careful not to wake the rest of the forest. Under their chatter, Blue could still hear soft groans of a walker.

Loud metal clangs and pops echoed suddenly and Blue sat up to glance over the side. She could just see the top of someone’s head, their brown hair rustled softly in the morning breeze. The wooden door swung up and open as Gansey climbed into the watch tower they had made their safe spot for the night. Long ago it was probably used for searching for lost hikers or bird watching, now it was just an old relic of the past. The panel closed and Gansey smiled down at Blue, who was still under the blankets in her makeshift bed. “Ah, good morning, Jane.”

Blue gave a sarcastic smile in response and stifled a yawn. Gansey adjusted the sniper rifle on his back to pull his shoulder bag to the front. He dropped to the ground next to her and ignored the way the metal plating creaked under his weight. He dug deep into the bag and pulled out a handful of berries. Blue took one glance and said “Throw the red ones out, they’re poisonous.”

Gansey laughed and emptied the berries onto the ground, he and Blue went to picking out the reds and tossing them over the rusty handrails. “See, what would I do without you, Blue?”

Gansey was keeping uncannily cheery even though they had lost their group almost a week ago. He laughed and joked and carried on as if it had always been just the two of them. Blue knew he missed them greatly.

She watched him sometimes, when he thought she was asleep or not looking. He looked sad, rubbing his bottom lip worriedly and staring into the night. She knew he was trying to stay positive for her. “I’m worried, Gansey.” Blue claimed when the berries were finally sorted and the sun an inch higher in the sky.

Gansey smiled up at her, holding a berry up to his lips. “You don’t need to be, we’re completely safe up here.” He swallowed and Blue saw a flash of purple stained teeth. “I have the gun if anything or anyone tries to get up here.”

Blue rolled her eyes and nearly growled. “No, I’m worried about them,” She was loosing her patience. “Ronan and Noah and Adam.”

Gansey was quiet as looked back at her. His eyes were squinted a little and Blue wasn’t sure if it was because he wanted her to know he was listening or because he really needed his glasses. Those, too, had been left behind when the random horde of zombies had flooded the town. The night had been silent and cool as Blue kept watch. She was tossing pebbles into a can several feet away trying to keep awake. As she had crossed the street to retrieve more pebbles to throw, she almost walked head on into the arms of a starving walker. Its dead eyes sparked recognition and a scream pierced the night from it’s gaping mouth. Blue ran back to the camp to grab a knife when she heard curious moans come from seemingly all directions. She awoke the others in a panic, screaming for them to “get the hell up” and run. Her feet pounded down the cracked pavement of main street. Blue could hear Gansey running behind her struggling to load the sniper he had grabbed off the wall in his haste. Zombies poured from side streets as Blue passed by and all she could think was “Where did they even come from?”

It wasn’t until Gansey and Blue were out of breath and collapsed on a side road miles from the town that Blue realized the others were not with them.

“Noah is fine, he survived in the dead zones long before we even got here.” Gansey’s voice was confident and his eyes were truthful. “And you know Ronan, it’s take a lot more than a few walkers to take him down. Survival is in his blood.”

“And Adam?”

She had asked the inevitable and watched Gansey’s eyes flicker away. His voiced dropped its optimism and she felt the fearful version of Gansey she only saw in passing. Gansey had met Adam by chance, both caught in the crossfire of a gang of raiders and the group Gansey had stayed the evening with. Ronan and Noah were ahead of them behind an abandoned shell of a car talking loudly over the gunfire. Gansey had stretched out his hand and offered his name. Adam had taken a bit to process that it was introduction, and even then he still looked shell shocked. For someone afraid of the heat of battle, he was in the wrong place. Adam was fine peering through the scope of a sniper and taking down walkers miles away, but he was lost when they got close. 

“Let’s hope he’s with Ronan or Noah.”

 

They spent the rest of day resting or gathering. Blue walked in the green forest picking plants and berries she recognized. Gansey stayed at the tower watching her and their surroundings with the sniper. The gun was Adam’s, accidentally grabbed in the chaos of several nights ago. Gansey was a shit shot no matter what type of gun he had, but at least he could keep a look out. Blue was more handy with her pink switchblade and hunting knife than any firearm, but at least she could aim better than he could.

It was about mid-day when the blade of Blue’s hunting knife found its home in a rabbit’s skull. She said a silent apology to it as she gathered the fury creature and tucked it into her bag. Blue never really liked the killing of animals, but she understood what it took to survive. Besides, it was either her or someone else. She sipped sparingly the remains from her green water bottle and sat in the humid shade of a tree. As spring kicked into full swing, the group had been given seasonal backlash. The days ranged from rainy and cool to hot and humid. The nights were still cold though. It made Blue miss her family and the secure camp she called home. Fox Way wasn’t perfect or large, just her family and their friends, but the metal plates set up around it kept zombies out. She never left the camp, she was too young and little to go out. So most of the time Blue stayed behind with her cousin. Orla would sing obnoxious songs that Blue didn’t know and talk about boys that Blue didn’t care about. She used to stab trees in her free time, but now that Blue thought about it, her mom probably made her stab the trees so she wouldn’t stab Orla.

As the sky turned purple, Blue climbed the rickety, rusty ladder up into the watch tower carrying an over stuffed bag full of plants and small animals caught by the wire and rope traps Gansey set up that morning. He may have been terrible at shooting, but he would have made an excellent boy scout.

Gansey’s hand was cool in hers as they silently sat against the gray metal wall and popped chunks of squirrel meat into their mouths. The dying ambers of the fire glowed in the gravel walkway that he had lit earlier to cook the meat.

Gansey had a pensive look on his face, and he hadn’t remembered to swallow for the past five minutes. He just kept chewing. “Maybe if we find a vehicle, we can cover more ground to search.” he wondered. Blue wasn’t sure if he meant to say that out loud, or if he wanted her to answer.

“It’s possible, but most abandoned cars we’ll find will have already been stripped and scavenged a long time ago. We would have a better chance in a city... but there’s a lot more walkers there.”

“We also don’t know where the closest city is.” Gansey pointed out. Blue nodded in agreement. “We lost the map that night.”

Blue shook her head, thoughts going back to that night. “Where did they even come from? There wasn’t any we first got there, not a single walker for miles in all directions.”

“Then suddenly they’re pouring out of every door, window, and street while we’re all asleep.” Gansey completed. It was an odd anomaly. Perhaps they were adapting, becoming even more predator like. It worried Gansey, he used to read books about doctors and scientists constantly creating new cures and vaccines for viruses that evolved and adapted. It was one dreaded thing that a bacteria could neurotically control a corpse, he couldn’t imagine if they became intelligent as well. 

Gansey held tighter to Blue’s hand. This was dangerous enough as it is, in this dreaded heat. If he had any cuts or nicks on his hand, her sweaty palm could turn him. Her rare reactant ailment could set off Gansey’s dormant and set the virus in motion. Blue knew this too as she forced their hands apart with the excuse to look through her bag.

Gansey stood only to turn around and lean out of the watchtower with his arms propped on the rail. The night was nearly upon them as the sun illuminated the last half of the sky. A cool breeze blew against his sticky skin and Gansey chewed on his bottom lip. A hand bumped his thigh and Gansey glanced down to see Blue’s offering: a mint leaf. Gansey liked to chew things when he thought, and Blue figured he would enjoy the cool taste. Calla used to grow mint back at Fox Way, and finding it wildly growing in the forrest only gave Blue the feeling that she made the right choice to leave. Gansey took it gratefully and rested the leaf on his tongue, its spice almost immediately relaxing him. He looked down at the tops of trees below him and the spaces of ground he could see between. A river of forgotten pavement cut through the woods to his east twisting around the land. If they really wanted to find a car, traveling along the road would be their best bet. All roads lead somewhere, whether it’s what they were out in the dead zones looking for or just another town, it was a start.

Gansey could smell the mint on his breathed and he smiled. “You lived in your camp your whole life, right?”

Blue had been reading one of the numerous manuals Gansey carried around when he spoke up. She folded it neatly and placed it near his blankets. “Yeah, my mom and her friends moved out of the safe zone when they were teenagers. They found an old rest stop and built their camp around it. She didn’t know she was pregnant with me until a few weeks after Fox Way was set up and running.”

Blue closed her eyes to remember it. Several shacks built up around the field, a large garden that she and some other kids tended too. Jemma had taken to adopting stray cats she found while out on runs, so there were always lazy cats basking in the sun and rubbing against Blue’s legs. She could almost hear their purring and feel the soft of their fur. “There were always flowers,” she said to herself. Persephone’s addition to the camp.

“Jane, look.” Gansey said suddenly. That soft smile was back on his face, the one that made Blue remember that some people still thought life was beautiful. Maybe he just hand’t been marred by the world yet. Blue pulled herself up off the ground and went to stand next to him. His arm was outstretched and pointing to something beyond the pine trees. In the bare strip of grass that ran along both sides of the road, Blue saw four figures.

“Deer,” he claimed. A doe had her head bent as she munched quietly on the damp grass. The other three were younger, one a stag. They stepped along the pavement delicately and sniffed the pebbles. Gansey had only seen pictures of deer, or the occasional tamed deer in the city, but never wild. The stag’s head turned toward the tower and gansey could feel its eyes on him, even from that far away.

“Don’t see healthy deer often,” Blue wondered. With another predator out there hunting them, their numbers dwindled. She couldn’t help but smile though, watching the gentle creatures.

Like a sudden change in the weather, all the deer’s heads jerked up. Their ears and noses twitched frantically while their eyes searched the tree line. Their bodies were no longer slack with ease, but tense with adrenaline. Blue waited for the growl of a walker to echo through the trees but heard no such thing. The forest had gone silent as they all listened. A faint hum met Gansey’s ear as the sun finally touched down on the horizon. Several different pops and sputters bounced around the trees until it was a jumbled mess of hums and buzzing. Loud rumbles grew louder as they quickly approached like a stampeding herd. Blue felt a sick feeling in her gut and she slowly lowered herself to a crouching position. Her hands still grasped the cold metal and her head peaked over to continue watching.

The small group of deer moved together. One second they were as still as stones, the next they bounded over the road and disappeared through the dark thicket. The oncoming rumble was a herd indeed, but not organic. Mechanic.

Six sleek motorcycles coasted around the curves of the road and up the hill. They moved in a similar sync and formation as the deer. They moved around two large black vans, two cyclist flanking each van with one to lead and another to bring up the rear. There was no symbols or writing on any of the vehicles or riders to identify them. They all wore high tech helmets and black body suits. Gansey could see guns strapped to the back of the cyclists. Silver cases were strapped to the back of the bikes and the vans looked like they were carrying something heavy.

Blue noticed a quick gleam of the front rider’s helmet in a quick survey of the land. His left hand raised in a quick fist before it was back on the handle bar to continue steering. The first cyclist on the left side of the van made a sharp turn into the forest and disappeared in almost the same thicket as the deer. “Maybe they’re hunting?” Gansey murmured curiously. He still stood straight, leaning almost all of his front half out of the tower to see the people.

As quick as they came around the bend, the eery fleet disappeared over the hill, the echo of their engines leaving as well. As the last growl of an engine faded away, the woods were left in total silence. Blue remained crouched by Gansey’s side, peaking over the rail. Something felt off about their practiced and swift movements. Gansey didn’t seem to feel the same as he grinned out into the dusk sky. “Wow, they moved fast,” he laughed. “Maybe we can catch up with them and ask for a ride?”

His laughter slowed though as he looked away. Black smoke filled the sky west of them, a fat column billowing as proof of a destructive fire. The town Gansey and Blue had passed on their way to the tower was burning. Blue could just see the glow of distant flames lick over the tree tops.

“The woods are too damp to burn,” Gansey commented. “There isn’t much of a chance of a forest fire, but the town is gone.”

Blue looked away from the smoke, back to the road.

“Perhaps those people were camped at that town, raiders could have started the fire to smoke them out.” Blue did not answer his thought. Gansey seemed to notice her unease, he patted her head gently and smiled down at her. “Don’t worry, Jane. They won’t find us.”

A loud crack cut off the last syllable of Gansey’s sentence. Blue’s head snapped toward the trees, a flock of birds that took to the air in a frightened flurry. Their confused chatters and cheeps were loud as they flew over the watch tower and away. The sky was indigo now and Blue could hardly see the dark forest floor below the emerald tree tops. A mint leaf fluttered in the breeze toward the ground. Gansey’s hand slipped off of her head and he shuddered a cough. He stumbled back a step and Blue looked to him. His hand grabbed at his shoulder, blood was streaming down his shirt and over his hand.

Gansey’ eyes were wide open and he started to sway. His mouth opened and closed like he was trying to say something but couldn’t make out the words. Blue quickly stood and helped lower him to the ground. 

She muttered “oh god” over and over. The sick feeling in her stomach had escalated to sheer panic that she had to hold in. Gansey needed her help or he could bleed out. As the blood pooled beneath him, his brain tried to process the pain and fear.

His harsh shuddering breaths filled the creeping silence of the night. As Blue worked to stop the bleeding, somewhere else below them, a motorcycle engine growled to life before pulling back onto the road to catch up to his group, sniper barrel still hot from a shot.


End file.
